25 killed in Landi Kotal bombing

At least 25 people were killed and more than 50 left injured when a high-intensity bomb tore through the main bazaar in Landi Kotal tehsil of Khyber Agency on Saturday.
A majority of the victims was of school children.
The bomb was planted in a pickup truck parked near Kacharo Gali (Mules Street) at Main Bazaar Landi Kotal that went off when a large number of children were heading back home through the area after school.
Soon after the explosion, shopkeepers and tribesmen rushed to the site and helped shift the bodies and injured to hospital.
Doctors in Landi Kotal Hospital confirmed receiving 18 bodies and 20 injured.
High-ranking civil officers, personnel of law enforcing agencies and Frontier Corps rushed to the site and supervised the rescue activities. Six shops were completely destroyed, while several others were damaged and at least eight vehicles were also destroyed in the bomb blast.
Tribesmen said the victims included a large number of school children who were passing through the street.
No one has claimed responsibility for the blast so far, but officials termed it a terrorist incident.
Since July 2007, a Taliban-led insurgency concentrated in the country’s northwest has fought Pakistan’s US-allied government.
Arshad Khan, a local administration official, told AFP that the blast appeared to be aimed at members of the pro-government Zakha Khel tribe, who oppose local warlord Mangal Bagh.
Mangal Bagh’s Lashkar-e-Islam group has links to militants and criminal gangs.
In the last five years, attacks blamed on Islamist bombers have killed more than 5,000 people in Pakistan, according to an AFP tally.
US officials consider the country’s Tribal Areas a safe haven for al Qaeda and insurgents fighting both in Pakistan and across the border in Afghanistan.
Last week a bomb ripped through a passenger bus, killing 19 people, including seven women and a child, on the outskirts of Peshawar. It was the deadliest attack in months on Peshawar, which has long been a flashpoint for the insurgency.
Pakistan’s relations with the United States are in disarray and it has imposed a blockade on NATO supplies crossing overland into Afghanistan since US air strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers along the border last November.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani strongly condemned the blast and reiterated the resolve of the government to fight terrorism and bring terrorists to justice.
He asked the political administration of Khyber Agency to provide best medical facilities to the injured.